RoadTrip With Ather 450X Gen 2 : 238 km in 15 Hours

Hi All,

This is my 8th ride blog. This is my Longest ride till now in a single day. I had to visit a resort in Kootayi, Tirur which was 113 km from home on 17th December 2022.

Since I had Gen 2 450X, there was no way I could complete the ride in a single charge and reach there. What made me go ahead with the trip anyway is the availability of AtherGrid Fast chargers on the way.

Started the ride from Home at 10:17 AM with 100% charge.

Start Dashboard :

First stop for the ride was the AtherGrid 2.0 at Indian Palace Restaurant, Puthukkad which is 30 km away from home. Used only Sports Mode and Warp Mode the entire ride. Staying in 45 km/h to 50 km/h most of the time.

Reached Indian Palace Restaurant, Puthukkad at 11:17 AM with 70% battery remaining.

Ride Stat 1 :

Dashboard pic after reaching first stop :

Distance Traveled : 30.8 km

Efficiency : 25.8 Wh/km

Energy used : 794.64 Wh or 30.44%

Current Battery at 70%

Another user was already charging in the grid, but he stopped after 5 mins, so I plugged in at 11:16 AM.

The one drawback of an EV is charging time, but Ather’s charging is the fastest currently for 2W market. The charging time also gives some time for taking a break from riding, without going in a single stretch.

I charged till 11:40 AM, 70% to 90% in 24 mins, pretty fast.

Resumed the ride at 11:42 AM to Ather Space - EC, Puzhakkal, Thrissur which is 18 km away.

Reached Thrissur EC at 12:25 PM.

Ride Stat 2 :

Dashboard pic after reaching Thrissur EC :

Distance Travelled : 18.6 km

Efficiency : 25 Wh/km

Energy used : 465 Wh or 17.82%

Current Battery at 74%

Plugged in Grid since one of it was free.

I went to have lunch at Nearby Food Mall while scooter is charging.

I cameback after lunch at 1:17 PM to see that it charged till 97%.

I asked the AtherSpace Thrissur EC showroom staff if they had Gen 3 Mirrors to fit my Gen 2 450X since they were compatible. Thankfully, they had it in stock and told can change it in sometime. The Gen 2 mirror spacers were somehow missing from the shroud. they replaced that too, to reduce further vibrations that may result in shroud cracking, this single part is subpar in the entire scooter design.

New Mirrors are much better in visibility having more area, and even putting rain jacket on doesn’t block the view much. The fitting of mirrors took an hour since it was lunch time for the service staff.

After fixing the mirrors, resumed the ride at 2:47 PM. Next stop at Electromeck Electric Vehicle Charging Station, Kunnamkulam which is 22 km away.

Reached Electromeck Electric Vehicle Charging Station, Kunnamkulam by 3:32 PM having ridden a total of 72 km so far.

Ride Stat 3 :

Dashboard after reaching Kunnamkulam :

Distance Travelled : 22.1 km

Efficiency : 29 Wh/km

Energy used : 640.9 Wh or 24.55%

Current Battery at 72%

This stretch of road was the worst ever with lot of potholes and uneven surfaces. Some work in progress also increased the traffic and reduced movement. This road also had a lot of inclines (kunn - meaning hill in Malayalam) where Warp Mode had to be used with more throttle to keep up with the traffic.

Another 450X Gen 3 was charging there, I had seen him from Thrissur Ather EC, talked for sometime. He didn’t take too long to charge since he wanted to go 10km only. After 20 mins, I plugged my scooter with the charger and he left.

Electromeck Electric Vehicle Charging Station, Kunnamkulam had rest rooms and places to sit and rest. It also has fast chargers for Cars by KSEB as well.

My tough luck, after 5-10 mins it stopped charging because power had gone off in the area, it only managed to charge 2% more in this time.

Instead of waiting for the power to comeback, I decided to go to the next Grid at The Charcoal Bay, Edappal only 19km away. Started at 4:13 PM with 74% charge.

From Kunnamkulam to Edappal it was smooth road and traffic was comparatively less, the avg speed was 50 - 55 km/h and touching indicated 79km/h in an empty stretch which was fun. This was evident in the efficiency figures too, which was the highest in the ride.

Reached The Charcoal Bay, Edappal at 4:43 PM and plugged in the charger.

Ride Stat 4 :

Dashboard after plugging in :

Distance Travelled : 19.3 km

Efficiency : 31 Wh/km

Energy used : 598.3 Wh or 22.92%

Current Battery at 51%

It was evening time and sun was nearly setting. The grid somehow didn’t lock properly or was slow because of sun, charging here was slower than I expected. I had a lemon soda for myself while I thought the scooter was charging rapidly. But to my surprise, in 30 minutes, only 5% got charged and when I checked the screen it was showing charger not locked.

So at 5:15 PM resumed the ride to next charging stop at P S Store Assampadi which is 21 km away with 56% battery.

The ride to this place was full of great turns but narrow road, didn’t take the speed above 35 km/h for most of the places and only when road was straight, raised to 53 km/h.

Reached P S Store Assampadi at 6:06 PM, it was a nice Bakery and juice shop.

Ride Stat 5 :

Dashboard after reaching Assampadi :

Distance Travelled : 20.8 km

Efficiency : 24 Wh/km

Energy used : 499.2 Wh or 19.13%

Current Battery at 35%

Plugged in the grid as it was available. I had a chilly lemon drink to refresh my juices after the long rides.

It was a very quick charge from 35% to 63% in 15 mins.

This was the final top up before I start to the destination at Sea Zone Resort, Kootayi 8.4km away.

After charging :

Reached Sea Zone Resort, Kootayi at 6:46 PM with 56% remaining.

Ride Stat 6 :

Dashboard after reaching Sea Zone :

Distance Travelled : 8.4 km

Efficiency : 26 Wh/km

Energy used : 213.2 Wh or 8.17%

Current Battery at 56%

So one side ride was done with the combined stats :

Distance Travelled : 120.5 km

Efficiency : 26.7 Wh/km

Energy used : 3217.35 Wh or 123.27%

Return to home started at 8:22 PM. In 1h 30m idle, Battery dropped only 1 percent.

Return start dashboard :

Since I had enough charge to reach The Charcoal Bay, Edappal I planned to charge only at 2 grids, but for longer. Edappal was 25km away and night riding is slower because of the road being so dimly lit. Took a cautious pace to complete 25km in 1hr.

Reached The Charcoal Bay, Edappal at 9:29 PM.

Ride Stat 7 :

Dashboard after reaching Edappal :

Distance Travelled : 25.1 km

Efficiency : 23 Wh/km

Energy used : 577.3 Wh or 22.12%

Current Battery at 31%.

Plugged in the grid and this time made sure it was locked and charging rapidly.

Night was already so cold, that even with jacket on, I felt the wind. I had a Sulaimani for relief while I waited for Ather to charge.

This time, it was charging very fast. In 32 mins went from 31% to 81%.

Next Stop at Electromeck Electric Vehicle Charging Station, Kunnamkulam 19 km away.

Start Dashboard :

Since it was a smooth stretch of road, the ride wasn’t much effort , reached Electromeck Electric Vehicle Charging Station, Kunnamkulam at 10:38 PM.

Ride Stat 8 :

Dashboard after reaching Kunnamkulam :

Distance Travelled : 19.3 km

Efficiency : 25 Wh/km

Energy used : 482.5 Wh or 18.48%

Current Battery at 65%

Night time no one was there at the charging station. Plugged in at 10:38 PM, and since home was 71km away, with enough charge can reach without another charging stop.

Took ample rest, in 38 mins charged from 65% to 93%. It was getting cooler with mist in the air. Just hoping to reach safely, continued the ride.

When I reached closer to Thrissur, I stopped outside the Ather Space - EC, Puzhakkal, Thrissur just to stretch and rest for 5-10 mins. Since the kunnamkulam road as mentioned above is very bad state, have to be extra careful of the potholes. Ather’s stiff suspension while it gave plenty of control even with unexpected potholes, the force coming to the body is irritating. Traffic was much less but fast approaching.

Ride Stat 9 :

Distance Travelled : 21.8 km

Efficiency : 24 Wh/km

Energy used : 523.2 Wh or 20.04%

Current Battery at 75%

Ather Thrissur EC at Night :

From Ather Thrissur EC to home, faced some navigation snags, the map wasn’t loading and was blank white screen had to turn off and wait for navigation to reset. I think the GPS was still thinking that I was moving while I stopped.

Ride Stat 10 :

Distance Travelled : 1.2 km

Efficiency : 28 Wh/km

Energy used : 33.6 Wh or 1.29%

Current Battery at 74%

After figuring out the correct route to highway, continued the ride. From Thrissur Town to NH544, 8km was a good ride with KSRTC Buses and other travellers only on the road. Still only warp mode used.

From Palliyekkara Toll Booth to home it is very wide highway with signals in between. Maintaining 45 - 59 km/h and sometimes more to overtake was really fun to ride. Open stretch nearly reached indicated top speed of 84 km/h for the 50km on the way home.

Finally reached Home at 01:49 AM very much tired. Scooter still had 15% battery left. Smart Eco mode made sure I could use Warp mode till the end.

Took 2h 31 mins for the final leg. Fast and efficient using warp mode.

Ride Stat 11 :

Distance Travelled : 50.5 km

Efficiency : 27 Wh/km

Energy used : 1363.5 Wh or 52.24%

Current Battery at 15%

Combined Ride Stats :

Distance Travelled : 238.3 km

Avg Efficiency : 25.8 Wh/km

Energy Used : 6148.14 Wh or 284.6%

Charged at 5 Grids :

Indian Palace Restaurant, Puthukkad

Ather Space - EC, Puzhakkal, Thrissur

Electromeck EV Charging Station, Kunnamkulam

The Charcoal Bay, Edappal

P S Store Assampadi

This ride would not be possible without the AtherGrid available to the north of Kerala. And most of them are 24h stops. The scooter was working very well even with the continuous riding and fast charging, got expected range everytime and never went below 31% battery. Only power cut was unforeseen, but all other things planned well before the trip. The mirror fixing also delayed me reaching the destination, but it is worth it. Bigger mirrors increased the confidence riding in traffic.

Thank you for reading this through and thanks to @tarun for liking the Road Trip Twitter Thread

Do checkout the Previous blogs by me :

My Most Efficient Ride

A ride till 0%

Ather Kochi Independence Day Ride

Saturday Ride meeting Atherites

A Rainy day ride to Kochi

Ride to Thrissur EC

Ather Kochi anniversary Ride

10 Likes

Super riding

1 Like

Very interesting :heart:

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Just curious, won’t it would have charged faster if you had directly stopped in Thrissur at ~50% rather than charging from 70% after riding 30km. It charges faster below 70-80%

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Yes, you’re right. Though I wanted to take frequent breaks rather than riding in a single stretch. It was very sunny as well, so planned in such a way that only 30 mins max charging required at each grid and unlock 5 unique grid badge for Monthly Ride log :joy:

In return I did only charge at 2 places, which saved time.

5 Likes

All dashboard pics :

All ride stats :

3 Likes